TOW #3: CDC Anti-Smoking Ad

This warning advertisement from the CDC connects smoking to heart problems and urges
smokers to kick their often-fatal habit before such problems set in. Experts
everywhere hope these will lower the numbers of smoking
adults in the United States.

In March of this year, the release of this advertisement sent shock waves across the country due to its graphic nature and hard-hitting message: it depicts an actual smoker, about to undergo open heart surgery, with a warning connecting smoking to health problems, specifically those that would require drastic open heart surgery.  It was unveiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), a world-renowned public health institute that in recent years has shown great concern about the numbers of adult smokers in the United States.  According to their website, 19% of adults smoke cigarettes.  As smoking is infamous for negatively affecting nearly every organ in the body and for causing a variety of health issues, the CDC hoped that advertisements such as the one featured above would encourage people to kick the dangerous habit before health problems arise.  The advertisement is obviously aimed at current smokers, but it could also target the friends and loved ones of people who smoke; they could use things, like this advertisement, to encourage smokers they know to quit.
Audiences are more likely to connect to a text or visual if the person who wrote it or is featured in it is similar to them or knows what they're talking about.  The ad appeals to ethos in this way, as it features an actual smoker with his own advice for those who haven't stopped smoking; he is in the same group as his audience and therefore knows the effects of smoking first hand.  They are therefore more likely to connect with him and take the ad seriously.  There is also the smallest of anecdotes in this ad: the man smoked, probably for years judging by his apparent age at the time of his surgery, and it resulted in him having severe health problems that had to be remedied by a scary, risky open heart surgery.  His situation is not one anyone would want to be in, and smoking could put a person in his shoes.  This would force viewers to think twice before starting to smoke or to make the decision to quit.
It is difficult to tell whether this ad would succeed in its mission.  On one hand, the message is very serious, and if a viewer was receptive to the information they may decide never to smoke or to quit doing so.  On the other, smoking is a very hard habit to quit, and smokers are warned all the time about the health risks, but continue to smoke anyway.  All in all, it seems only a viewer who is thinking about quitting smoking already would be affected by this ad, since it would reinforce what they would already be thinking.